Hello from Maybelle Farm. Its' a beautiful sunny day with blue skies and we are supposed to have more nice weather for the 4th of July tomorrow. However I would like to order several days of nice gentle rain.......no wild, windy, crazy weather like we had Friday night!

I will start with some sad news first. We had to put down my sweet old Java girl on June 14th, because she was just too old and too tired. My sheep look at me with "that look", I know it's time. She was a special sheep to me as she had a broken leg that I nursed her through and I just really loved her. Cocoa and Aphrodite are her two daughters and they were with her to the end. Cocoa is 14 yrs. old and Aphrodite is 11 yrs. old.

Now to some happy news. The lambs Keenan, Kodie and Kalista are all thriving and bouncing around the pastures. I currently have 48 sheep and will need to decide who to sell and what to do to cut down on numbers. It is wonderful hay weather and I know that hay will begin to arrive at the barn soon. That also means I work a lot of extra hours to pay for the hay. However I sleep much better at night knowing I have hay stored in the barn for the winter ahead. We had such a mild winter last year that I'm sure we are do for a cold, snowy one this year.

Darcy's family got a great surprise of a new little Golden Retriever puppy named Kassidy. She is also from the Gaines Farm in Guilford, VT. She arrived at 15 weeks old and is just the sweetest little girl. Kara is missed terribly and Kassidy doesn't replace her at all. Kassidy is a true gift born in February and has helped the whole family feel better. There is nothing like a silly little puppy to make you feel good!

School is out for the summer.....YIPPEE! Darcy helps so much with the sheep all the time but now there is so much portable fencing to be moved and work to be done. She is constantly helping me and yesterday she had Todd help trim Okra and Siobhan's hooves. Okra is 14 years old and having trouble getting around with arthritis. We have quite a few elderly, old lady sheep in our flock that require extra TLC. Our vet tells us that the average sheep lives to be 9 years old... I guess this definitely makes us above average!

There are new lambs, new chickens and a new puppy.......life is great at the farm. We are building a float for the Wardsboro 4th of July parade tomorrow. It's a farm themed float and we will have a spinning wheel, wool, yarn, blankets, etc.. to show what we have made from our wool. My grandson Austin will drive the tractor to pull the float and then my other grandchildren Ella, Rowan and Declan will be on the float with me. It's exciting to have a float again this summer. We have not had a float in almost 10 years!

Well that is an update from here at the farm so I will close and head to the farm store. Time to get grain and get back to the farm and work on our float. So long from Maybelle MaMa.